Legacy of Evermore
by ClaudeLv250
Summary: After the passing of Professor Ruffleberg, an adult Elizabeth returns to Evermore with two teens and their cat in tow to find some startling changes and additions in her absence. Curiosity triggers the catapult that will send them hurtling towards the core of Evermore's deepest, darkest secrets.
1. Prologue - Podunk, 2015

**Introduction:** I have always been a fan of the Mana series and when I saw Secret of Evermore back in the day, even though I knew it wasn't quite a Mana game, I jumped at the opportunity to play it and the game clicked with me. Despite some gameplay similarities, Evermore sets itself apart with its setting and plot...Evermore itself is a dark, alluring world that's easy to get lost in, and its hokey dialogue keeps its atmosphere from coming on too strongly. I, and many other fans of Secret of Evermore, have to deal with the fact that a sequel isn't likely to ever happen. But that doesn't mean that we can't revisit Evermore on our own terms...

**Summary:** After the passing of Professor Ruffleberg, an adult Elizabeth (Fire Eyes) returns to Evermore with two teens and their cat in tow to find some startling changes and additions in her absence. Curiosity triggers the catapult that will send them hurtling towards the core of Evermore's deepest, darkest secrets.

**Disclaimer:** Secret of Evermore and all related properties belong to Square Enix; I just whipped up some of the original characters solely for this story.

* * *

**Legacy of Evermore**

By ClaudeLv250

Prologue – Podunk, 2015

Heavy curtains snuffed out the sunlight that attempted to weasel its way through the aged windows of the classroom. The only light in the room was provided by a projector casting the image of a velociraptor lowered into a pouncing position. The class of high school students looked on as their teacher, a woman with fiery red hair and thick coke-bottle glasses, pointed towards the image.

"...Modern science now tells us of the close relationship between birds and dinosaurs. So what we once thought of as raptors..."

She pressed the clicker and the image switched to an identical picture of the raptor, adorned with tufts of feathers on its head and along its limbs.

"...May have looked a little more like this."

"_**Lame!**_" someone called out from the back of the class. The room filled with giggles.

The teacher shut off the projector and sent the curtains receding back to the top of the windows, allowing the sun to filter into the classroom. She glanced at the clock and made her way back to her desk.

"Class, I have a small announcement to make," the teacher began softly.

"Surprise test on Monday," Luke Durant murmured in despair from his desk.

"Miss R wouldn't be that cruel," his friend, Krista Plunkett, whispered from behind him.

Miss R, their teacher, gave a forlorn look to the binder sitting open before her until she closed it. "I have some...family business to take care of," she continued, "So you will have a substitute through all of next week. I expect you all to behave, all right?"

There were some silent expressions of victory and praise that were cut short by the ringing of the bell. School was over and the weekend was just beginning, and most of the class reacted in kind by attempting to vacate the premises as soon as possible.

"I told you she wasn't that cruel," Krista said, coming into view as Luke filled his backpack. Her ruby red hair was tied into a simple ponytail. A few bangs curled over a pale face and a smattering of freckles.

"Yeah, but...something seemed to be bothering her," Luke admitted as he pushed his arms through the straps of the pack. Luke's dark brown hair was cut short and gave full view of his tan face.

"I know. She's been a little weird all day."

"Man, don't you guys watch the news or something?" their friend Mark interjected suddenly. He pushed his cellphone toward their faces as it displayed a news story. "Sidney Ruffleberg died last night. Of course she's not herself!"

The pair traded shocked expressions before Krista uttered, "Wow, poor Miss R..."

"I had no idea."

They left the classroom in a dark mood, but Krista thought she could salvage it.

"Do you want to go to the movies and see the Vexx reboot?" she asked.

Luke furrowed his brows, "Didn't the last couple of Vexx movies suck?"

"It's a _reboot!_ They're supposed to be fixing everything that went wrong in parts four, five and six."

"Sorry but I can't. I'm taking Domino to the vet tomorrow to get her shots."

Krista sighed. "That shouldn't take all day."

"I didn't say we couldn't hang out. I just wouldn't hold my breath for the movies."

"Okay, but you know Podunk is boring as hell," Krista complained. "There's not a whole lot else to do!"

"Yeah, yeah. I know," Luke found himself in agreement. "We'll find something to do."

* * *

Under the orange radiance of twilight, Luke navigated the worn sidewalks of downtown Podunk with Krista in tow. The teens were dressed in casual wear for their Saturday outing: Krista wore a blue denim jacket over a green shirt and blue jeans, while Luke sported a white vest over a black shirt and black and white cargo pants. In Luke's right hand was the handle to the simple beige carrying case that contained a white domestic short-haired cat. Two patches of black fur marked her forehead, giving her the namesake Domino.

As they rounded the corner, Krista stopped and gasped dramatically at the sight of the Bijou theater.

"I completely forgot we were heading in this direction!"

"What a coincidence!" Luke exclaimed with the rolling of his eyes.

Krista ran over to the ticket booth and read the times. "The next showing of Vexx 3D is in five minutes! We can get in before the previews start."

Luke tapped the carrier in his hand and said, "Even if I really wanted to see that movie, I've still gotta take Domino home."

Krista gave distressed glances between the cat and the ticket booth. The ticket taker shrugged at her plight. "But...but...they accept pets, right?"

"They dropped that policy when they upgraded to a multiplex," said Luke, and the ticket taker nodded along.

Krista sighed, looking down to the crack pavement and let her shoulders sag in defeat. "Alright, let's do something else."

"Maybe we can see it next time," Luke murmured. He hated seeing Krista lose her fire.

When they reached the end of the block, the old Ruffleberg mansion loomed in the distance at the top of a hill. A wicked idea crossed Krista's mind but she quickly dismissed it. She did spot a female figure walking across the premises and squinted to make out any recognizable features.

"Luke, look!" she pointed at the figure. "Is that Miss R?"

"Yeah, looks like it," Luke confirmed. He caught the grin Krista was giving him.

"Let's go over there and cheer her up!"

"What if she wants to be alone to grieve?"

"In that big, lonely mansion?"

"Alright," Luke caved. "I guess we can go over and see how she's doing."

* * *

_**Oh, what could possibly go wrong!?**_


	2. Chapter I - Breadcrumbs

**Chapter I – Breadcrumbs**

The teens stared through the open gates of the Ruffleberg mansion, waiting for the other to make the first move. An evening breeze brushed against them; Krista closed her jacket and held tightly to the fabric. Domino gave a very quiet meow.

"What are we waiting for?" Krista finally broke the silence. "She might need a shoulder to cry on right this moment."

Luke had to actively fight a shiver. "This place is really creepy."

The outdoor pillars of the mansion were lined with nondescript humanoid statues, each of their faces locked indefinitely into a solemn gaze, stone brows furrowed for eternity. The property exuded a sense of isolation, existing in its own vortex away from Podunk. The sights and sounds of the town were muffled in the distance accompanied by what must have been a temperature drop of thirty degrees.

Krista and Luke took the first step together.

"If you think it's creepy now, imagine what it was like when it was abandoned for thirty years!" The distant look in Krista's eyes suggested that the prospect seemed more exciting than frightening.

Luke gave her a suspicious onceover. "That's what this is about, isn't it?" he asked in a stern tone.

"Whatever do you mean?" Krista replied innocently.

"You want to fish for clues on the experiment!"

"_Who wouldn't?_" Krista exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air. "It's the mystery of Podunk! It actually put this backwater town on the map for a time. A group of people vanish in an experiment for thirty years and just reappear without aging a day?"

"So what are you going to do, grill Miss R in her condition? Or are you going to snoop around the mansion? It's been twenty years since they came back and nobody in that group ever cracked, so what do you expect to find?"

"You can be really pessimistic sometimes, Luke," Krista said, shaking her head. "This is our opportunity to find out the truth. This could put **us** on the map!"

Luke uttered a cynical chuckle. "That's you Krista: always thinking big, never thinking about the consequences."

"What consequences?"

"There has to be a good reason for them to keep it a secret this long."

"And you'd do well to remember that," Elizabeth added, her arms crossed as she towered over them on the portico. The bottle glasses intensified her glare.

* * *

A deafening silence blanketed the mansion, save for the set of footsteps on the checkered floor. Krista and Luke followed Elizabeth after she beckoned for them. Neither dared utter a word for fear of their teacher's reaction; even Domino had been so quiet that Luke had to check more than once to make sure she was still in the carrier.

"I don't see that infernal butler anywhere," Elizabeth suddenly hissed. She turned to her students, the frills of the black dress hugging her hips swinging in tune, and adjusted her glasses, "So you two really want to know what the experiment was?"

Luke was dumbfounded. "You're not _really_ going to tell us, are you?"

There was a short silence before Elizabeth said, "My grandpa's sudden death took me back to a lost period of my life. I'm the sole inheritor of his estate, and I've been wondering how to go about keeping this secret...and _how_ secret it should be. I guess I'm Evermore's new gatekeeper."

"Evermore? What...?" Krista made no attempts to mask her confusion.

"My grandpa created a machine that can take you to the world of your own dreams and design. I was trapped in that world for thirty years. That's the secret of Evermore." Elizabeth climbed the grand staircase of the foyer and gestured for her students to follow.

"That sounds _awesome!_" Krista squealed excitedly. Luke was in disbelief, but had a feeling that his teacher wouldn't tell a tale like that without some proof.

The staircase split under a massive window. They followed the right set of stairs to the top, where Elizabeth suddenly began feeling along the wooden walls.

"The machine was shut down for Evermore's own good, but the reality is that Evermore is a living, breathing place that's connected to Earth, whether we like it or not. Oh, come on! It's got to be around here somewhere!"

A hidden panel under Elizabeth's palm slid to the side. With the press of a button, part of the wall receded into itself and revealed another, smaller staircase that spiraled upward.

"This is like one of those movie mansions with secret passages everywhere," Krista noted.

"Well this movie is about to get a lot more interesting," Elizabeth added with a wink.

At the top of the stairs was Professor Ruffleberg's secret laboratory. Despite appearing to have long been decommissioned, the place was spotless, and a couple of the human-sized test tubes lining one side of the wall were filled to the brim with a neon gelatinous substance.

Elizabeth kept a brisk pace through the lab with the teens in tow. At the end of the lab was an isolated section with a large machine over a platform. Thick cables leading to and from the machine were strewn about the floor.

"This is it?" Luke inquired. In truth, he didn't know what he expected.

"Does it look like a plasma drive to anybody else?" Krista pondered aloud, garnering strange glances from Luke and Elizabeth.

Elizabeth stopped in her tracks when she noticed the dongles hanging from the machine were brimming with life and power.

"Alright, change of plans: go home," she ordered suddenly.

"Wait, what's wrong?" Luke asked, clutching carrier tightly.

"The transporter is active. _Somebody's_ been up to no good."

A bolt of energy crackled from the machine and struck the ground in a flash of light. Once it receded, Miss R was nowhere to be found.

"What the heck was that?" Krista cried, pressed against a wall.

The carrier in Luke's hand fell apart, revealing its empty contents.

"Domino!" Luke dropped to the ground and grabbed one of the large cables. "We've got to shut this thing down before we get sucked in too!"

"How will they get back?"

"How will we get back if we end up over there? We don't know how anything on Evermore works! Maybe we can figure out how to reverse it if...!"

Luke's vision went dark and he felt the weight pulled from under him. He hit the metal floor with his back and the distinct sound of another body landing beside him rattled his ears.

"Welcome to the other side," his teacher's voice lulled him back to reality.

* * *

_**I wonder who activated the transporter? Hint: It wasn't the butler!**_


End file.
